Where Angels Fear To Tread
by Seinakyou
Summary: AU. The Security Forces are on a manhunt for Allen Walker, accused of high treason against the Council of Noah. Lavi didn't expect the Destroyer of Time to end up lying half-dead on his couch, but he hadn't expected himself to become a key player in the Exorcist Rebellion, either. ::Laven::


**Title: **Where Angels Fear To Tread

**Summary: **AU. The Security Forces are on a manhunt for Allen Walker, accused of high treason against the Council of Noah. Lavi didn't expect the Destroyer of Time to end up lying half-dead on his couch, but he hadn't expected himself to become a key player in the Exorcist Rebellion, either. ::Laven::

**ANI: **I know, I really shouldn't be starting anything new, but when this idea struck I just couldn't let it pass. Maybe it'll inspire me to update? Also, I don't own -Man.

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The sun seeped through ratty curtains into an un-kept room, illuminating the sleeping figure of a young man. He was sprawled peacefully on top of his covers, a journalism textbook laying on his chest and a set of notes lying abandoned next to him. His hair was flopped over his face, rising and falling with his breath, when the boy woke with a start.

"Christ…!" He mumbled, groping blindly around his head for his alarm clock, which was loudly blaring the morning news.

"_And in other news, fifteen people were sent to the Riverside District yesterday on suspicion of harbouring fugitives of the State. The accused protest any involvement with the fugitives, yet the evidence against them is overwhelming. The fugitive has been confirmed as-"_

His arm contorted to reach under his pillow, where he found the clock and fumbled around, looking for the snooze button. He took the clock out from under the pillow and slammed it down. The room suddenly fell silent; he could hear the coffee maker running in the kitchen and his roommate's hushed phone call. The boy blinked once, and then raised a hand over his eyes to squint into the sunlight. "Don't wanna get up…" he groaned, and rolled over to face the wall. The text book fell off of his chest and onto the mattress, and the boy groggily tried to read the cover. After a few seconds, he chalked it off as an impossible task and buried the side of his face into the pillow, burrowing into the warmth.

"Not that I care, but don't you have an exam in half an hour?" His roommate called from the kitchen. The first boy's eyes snapped open. Suddenly alert, he let out a muffled curse and jolted up, scattering the pens and highlighters left on his bed from his last minute cramming.

"C'mon, man, couldn't you have woken me up a bit earlier?" He yelled to his roommate, leaping out of bed and running to his closet.

"Sorry, but I was busy not being your mother." The roommate shot back, ignoring the dull thud coming from the first boy's room as he fell over trying to put on his pants.

The first boy grumbled something incoherent and flung open the door to his bedroom and starting into the kitchen. The buttons on his shirt were all buttoned in one hole too high and his mop of red hair was disheveled. He shot his roommate a withering look and hastened to the bathroom. "Seriously, Kanda, would it kill you to do something nice for me once in a while?"

"Let me think about that… yes." Kanda replied, turning back to his frying pan and flipping his omelette.

The first boy ran back into the room, hair brushed and visibly refreshed. "Do I smell eggs?" He said, eyes lighting up hopefully. He hastily started tucking his shirt in, causing Kanda to grimace.

"Do you always have to dress like an old man? It's like all you own is shades of fucking ugly." He said, assessing argyle socks and dress pants. "And yes, you smell the breakfast I'm making for myself."

The first boy shot him a pitiful look. "Stingy." He whined, grabbing a few slices of bread from a bag on the counter and shoving them into the toaster. He then ran back to his room, tripping over a pair of shoes in the hallway, and started throwing things into his bag. "And I'll have you know that some people find the way I dress attractive." He called back, as he tossed a textbook into his bag.

Kanda snorted from the kitchen, poking his eggs with a spatula. "Right, attractive. 'Oh, Lavi,'" He mimicked in a high pitched voice, "'I find your tweed blazers and suspenders _sooo_ sexy, I just wanna jump your bones.'"

"Why you gotta be that way?" Lavi groused, re-buttoning his shirt and checking his reflection in the mirror. Satisfied, he grabbed a jacket from his coat rack and threw it over his shoulder. "And I don't own tweed or suspenders, you prat. I have a scholarship assessment meeting after this exam, so I'm trying to look presentable."

"Toast." Kanda said mildly as the toaster popped, prompting Lavi to drop his bag in the hallway and run into the kitchen. He grabbed the toast out of the toaster and buttered it quickly, before cramming it in his mouth and running to the door. "Oh, by the way," Kanda continued, "Lenalee's coming over tonight."

Lavi froze at the door, midway through pulling on a pair of mismatched gloves and kicking the door open. He turned back to the kitchen and met Kanda's challenging stare. A thousand objections ran through his head, but none of them seemed to manifest into words. "Okay." He said finally. "Whatever. I'll be sure to clear out." Kanda scowled, turning off the stove.

"No, jackass, you're not. You're writing the exam and you're coming back here, because according to Lenalee we 'don't spend enough time together anymore' or some shit like that. She actually misses you, though I ain't got a clue why."

Lavi, leaning on the doorframe into the kitchen, snorted. "Great. Nice. Yeah, it'll be a whole lot of fun hanging out together again. Nothing is more exciting than hanging out with my _ex-boyfriend_-" He injected as much venom into the word as possible, "-and his new girlfriend. No, thank you. Tell her I couldn't bear the awkwardness. It won't be a lie." He turned to face to door and started to walk away before Kanda's voice echoed from the kitchen.

"I can't tell her that, jackass."

Lavi sighed, turning around and silently lamenting the fact that he was going to be late. "Why not? She'll know why, and I can always hang with her later. Stop being a baby." Kanda had turned mysteriously quiet while Lavi was talking, and Lavi had the sinking feeling that he'd been tuned out. "Kanda?" He called, irritation rising, and then Kanda stepped into the front hallway, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I can't tell her that, jackass." He repeated, guilt barely concealed by his normal scowl.

Lavi felt his stomach sink as pieced it together in a moment of clarity. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." He began, voice starting to rise. "You're kidding. We've all been friends for what, eight years, and you couldn't have been bothered to tell her that we dated for a year?! You- I don't- did you keep it a secret, even then? Was I that shameful to you?" He was yelling now, furious, and getting dangerously close to tears. "Why didn't you tell her!"

Kanda reddened. "It's none of your business what I talk to my girlfriend about!" He snapped, glaring at his roommate.

"It kind of is my business when you refuse to tell your girlfriend about us!" Lavi bit back, a hole opening up in his stomach. He should've expected this, he told himself, as he glared at Kanda. He should've expected that he wouldn't tell his new girlfriend, their old friend, about the fact that he used to date him. He'd known about Kanda's infatuation with Lenalee from the beginning, but he'd hoped to change that, hoped that he could erase her from his memory when she'd moved. He'd almost thought he'd succeeded, up until the moment that Kanda had got a call from her, telling him that she was coming back into town. Lavi had been dumped on the spot. That still stung, and every time Lenalee came over since, Lavi had just pleaded sickness, turned up his music, and tried to tune out the sounds coming from his one-time boyfriend's room. Ever the diplomat, he'd never brought it up, but he had to draw that line at this.

"Why do you care if I tell her or not, we're done! It doesn't matter anymore, you know that!" Kanda said sharply. Lavi saw him flinch back from the sudden hurt that he was sure he was now projecting. "Look, Lavi…"

"Just don't." Lavi said, suddenly tired. "I don't have time to deal with this right now. I have to go." Lavi grabbed a lurid orange scarf from the coat tree and flung it around his neck, before wrenching open the door.

The morning was cold; but it usually was this close to the Divide._ The Divide_. Unbidden, memories leapt to his mind. His mother smiling, his father ruffling his hair. Them giving him his first book, them telling him that he could be whatever he wanted to be, that he could make a difference. That he could fix what was wrong with the world, make it a better place.

He didn't feel like he could do much of anything right, not anymore.

Ignoring the pangs of old hurt, Lavi leaned on the railing outside of his doorway. Inside he could hear Kanda stomping around, cursing incoherently and probably making a mess. A slight frown creased Lavi's face: it'd be just like all of their arguments. He'd come home and Kanda would be sitting on the couch playing video games and refusing to talk to him. Then, later, when he'd cooled down, he'd come over and join Lavi for dinner, making awkward small talk in an attempt to make up for the cruel things he'd said earlier. And Lavi, like an idiot, would feel sorry for him and forgive him without ever demanding an apology.

He clenched his fist and glared at the streetlight. He wished that it didn't make so much sense for them to still be rooming together. He wished that it wasn't easier to pay rent with two people, wished that their apartment wasn't close enough to all the major hubs that he couldn't justify moving out. He wished that he wanted to move out, because despite everything he still wasn't over Kanda.

He ran down the rickety stairs and stepped out on the sidewalk. He sighed, feeling a headache starting to grow. He kicked a pebble and turned left, ready to stalk off to the bus stop and do some last minute studying en route to his exam, but was knocked over by a small figure that came hurtling down the sidewalk towards him.

They fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs, and Lavi felt his head crack against the sidewalk. Part of his brain registered that if he got a note from the school nurse, he wouldn't have to write his exam. The rest of him, still angered and irate from his argument with Kanda, was pushed over the edge. "Watch where you're going, idiot! You're gonna get someone killed!" He snapped, pushing the person off of him. They rolled off of him easily, and hit the sidewalk hard. Lavi stood up, brushing off his pants and trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his head. When he looked down, the kid was still lying on the sidewalk in the same position he'd last been in. A seed of worry started to grow in him, and he crouched down beside the kid.

"Hey, you all right?" He said gruffly, sticking his cold hands in his pocket. Getting a closer look at the kid, Lavi's gut clenched in worry. The boy was maybe sixteen and painfully thin, his bare arms scrawny and scarred. His face was flushed, and he was breathing rapidly and shallowly. "You okay, kid?" He said again, though it was more rhetorical at this point.

Through the aching in his head, he distantly heard the sound of sirens. Suddenly wary, he scanned the empty street around him. Seeing no movement, he looked down at the boy in front of him. He was suddenly aware of how thin the boy's clothing was, and how torn his sneakers were. "Those aren't after you, are they?" He muttered, taking one hand out of his pocket and rubbing the top of his head. He stood up and looked around the street. "Shit." He said to himself, before reaching down and grabbing the boy's arm.

The boy moved suddenly, pulling Lavi down into the snow and pinning him under his slight figure. The boy's large eyes were glazed with pain, and Lavi belatedly noticed the blood seeping through the boy's shirt. The boy's gaze roved over Lavi, panicked and frantic, at the same time as his hands were pinning Lavi's wrists to the cold pavement. After a few seconds, the boy relaxed slightly, arms beginning to tremble under his own weight. "Please," he said, voice weak, "Please don't let them catch me."

The boy's arms gave out then, and he fell on top of Lavi. Lavi sat up to catch the boy, cradling him in his arms. The boy's eyes were closed now and he trembled in Lavi's arms, though whether it was from cold or sickness he couldn't tell.

Lavi, all of a sudden, didn't know what to do. He rode a moral high horse a lot of the time, but when faced with a real life example he was lost. If the Security Forces were after the boy, then he should do his civic duty and turn him in, despite his very strong distaste for the police. But the boy had sounded so desperate, and he was injured. And besides that, if he handed him over, the boy would almost definitely die. The sound of the sirens suddenly rang in his ears, and in the spur of the moment he decided.

"Dammit." He grumbled, picking the boy up gently and putting him on his back. He wrapped the boy's arms around his neck and started towards the stairs. The boy opened his eyes blearily and looked at Lavi out of the corner of his eye, and then closed his eyes, burrowing his hands in Lavi's scarf. When they got to his door, Lavi reached into his pocket and tried to grab his keys, with little success. The sirens getting louder, he resorted to kicking on the door. When there was no response, he kicked harder. "Open up, Kanda!"

The door swung inwards suddenly, and he was met with his roommate's scowling face. "What's wrong with your keys, idiot?" His eyes narrowed. "Who the hell's that?" He said, gesturing at the boy on Lavi's back.

"No idea," Lavi replied, "But he's hurt, and-"

"Are those sirens?" Kanda cut him off, eyes widening slightly and looking to the street. He turned to Lavi accusingly. Lavi shifted, uncomfortable under his gaze, and made to step inside, but Kanda blocked his way. "Like hell we're letting him in here, who knows what kind of shit this kid's in."

"You've done worse than this, and you know it." The throbbing in Lavi's head intensified. "Kanda, please." He said, through the pain. "Let us in."

Kanda looked at the boy with blatant suspicion, before he met Lavi's eyes. After a few seconds, he nodded, and then his eyes jumped to Lavi's head. "You're bleeding, you know that?" He said, stepping out of the doorway. Lavi sighed in relief and stepped inside quickly.

"Hadn't noticed, actually." He said, walking into the sparsely furnished living room and setting the boy down gently on the couch. Inside, the boy looked even more unearthly. His skin shone palely through the grime, and his hair, so blonde it was almost white, glowed faintly. His face was flushed from fever and his eyebrows were screwed together in pain, but it was clear that he was exceptionally pretty. Long eyelashes fluttered over high cheekbones, and his lips parted in a whimper. Sweat began to bead up on his face, and he rolled over. Lavi reached out and placed a hand on his forehead, only to recoil in shock.

"He's burning up," He said, standing up quickly, "we've got to-" His head swam, and his legs buckled beneath him. Kanda grabbed his arm, and eased him down to the floor. Through the cloud of pain – how had he not noticed how much it hurt before? – he could feel Kanda's hands guiding his head to the floor to rest on a pillow that had not been there before.

"Yeah, you're not going anywhere. I'll get you some ice." At Lavi's incredulous gaze, Kanda rolled his eyes. "Right. Because apparently you've forgotten all those times I took care of you when you were being a fuckin' baby over a cold, I'll remind you that I was the oldest sibling and occasionally had to take care of people."

Lavi laughed, but it was weak. He buried his head in between his knees and screwed his eyes shut, trying to focus on anything but the pain. He heard Kanda snort from somewhere to his left. "Yeah, okay. You've probably got a concussion. Just chill there, I'll take care of your latest pity project."

"Kanda?" Lavi called. Kanda turned around, one eyebrow cocked. "Thanks."

"Yeah, whatever." He called back. "Can you get that shirt off of the kid? It's just making him colder."

Lavi flushed bright red, suddenly thankful that Kanda was out of the room. He sat up slowly, trying not to aggravate his head any more than necessary, and looked towards the couch. With distaste, he noticed that the blood was leaching through the kid's shirt and onto the couch. He was more worried for the kid than the couch, though, considering they had found the couch on the street after one of their neighbours was foreclosed. Or maybe moved out. He lost track of it so easily, with all their neighbours coming and going as soon as they were able.

He propped the kid up on the bed so that the boy's torso was unhindered, swallowing hard, he started to pull off the kid's shirt, slowly, awkwardly. It didn't so much pull off as it did fall, ratty as the shirt was. The zipper on his dilapidated vest slid open at barely a touch, and fell away to reveal the bleeding wound on the boy's side.

Lavi had to hold back bile when he saw the extent of the wound. It looked almost as if some large animal had clawed through his side, rending the skin and creating an infection. The wound bled slowly, but it also oozed clear pus that signified the source of the wound. There was no doubt about it; this boy had been on the run from the police. The kind of poison that caused this injury, it was only used by the Security Forces in the lower Districts. He pulled the fabric out of the wound and tired to remember if they still kept the bootleg antidote to the poison, considering how many times they'd needed to use it with Kanda's old friends. Once the wound was clear, he set about making sure there weren't any wounds elsewhere.

He had almost managed to get the rest of the shirt off when a strange mark on his shoulder made him stop cold. His fingers trembled, but he reached for the tear on his shirt. _Please, no_. He tugged the fabric down, and when he saw the symbol marked on the kid's shoulder his blood turned to ice. He tried to call out to Kanda, but all that came out was a whimper. "Ah… ah…" He gasped, eyes wide. He fell back down to the floor and started to push himself away from the boy on the couch. As he frantically backpedalled, the pounding in his head grew worse. The throbbing increased in potency until he couldn't tell what was real and what memory. He saw police storming in, grabbing, pulling them away from him, scanning, making sure he was clean. He saw them being thrown in vans and driven away, he saw cold eyes and no sympathy and forever exclusion. He heard a little boy wail, and the sound made his headache worse. _Just shut up_, he thought viciously, _stop it!_

It wasn't until he felt a hand over his mouth and heard the noise stop that he realized that at least that part had been real.

"Fuck!" Kanda hissed, brown eyes blazing, "Do you _want_ us to get noticed? Chill out!" Lavi gulped in air, and with a shaking hand pointed over to the couch. Kanda put the ice in his hands and crouched down next to him. "The fuck's wrong with you, you haven't been this freaked since last Halloween."

"Kanda, he's… it's…" Lavi shot a panicked look towards to couch, and Kanda rolled his eyes and stepped towards the couch, examining the wound on the boy's abdomen.

"Christ, you've seen worse on me. Didn't know you suddenly became a little girl about this kind of…" Kanda's voice died off as his eyes finally reached the kid's shoulder. His face, normally stony and unreadable, suddenly morphed into a mask of panic. He took a step backwards, hand reaching towards his pocket, where his cell phone lay.

"Shit." Kanda said. "Is that…?" He shot a fevered glance towards Lavi, who nodded wildly. They both looked with dawning horror at the prone figure lying on their couch. On his exposed shoulder was a tattoo of a clock, and the second hand on it ticked steadily away, the ink gliding over the pale skin.

"He's Marked."

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**ANII: **Hey, if you like it, let me know? Because then, maybe, I'll update.

seinakyou


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